1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a baking-tin to cook and distribute sweet things such as small cakes, puddings and the like (hereinafter referred to as cakes) or food-stuffs in general.
2. Prior Art
It is known that when cakes have to be cooked it is generally necessary to use baking-tins adapted to contain a certain amount of said cakes in order to allow the simultaneous introduction thereof into an oven and the simultaneous withdrawal therefrom.
For the purpose different types of baking-tins are currently used.
One of these types has a laminar metal structure and is provided with a number of niches, each of them designed to contain a cake. However baking-tins of this type involve high production costs as well as long times for the production of the cakes and, as a result, high costs due to a greater heat consumption. In fact in this case at the end of cooking it is necessary to withdraw the cakes from the respective niches and afterwards to pack them up in order to allow their distribution to retailers or consumers.
A further drawback of the above baking-tins is that they need a careful servicing as they must be periodically washed and sterilized. In addition said baking-tins cannot be used to cook cakes in modern microwave ovens, due to the undesired wave reflections they can generate inside the ovens themselves.
Baking-tins made of plastic material are also known but they are substantially identical, as to their construction concept, with the metal baking-tins previously described. In fact the only advantage they have is that their production costs are lower, while they are subjected to all the other drawbacks proper to metal baking-tins.
It is clear that under this situation the provision of baking-tins adapted to make it possible an important reduction in operations and times for the obtention of the finished product would be desirable.
In this connection the applicant has devised a particular type of cake container which has been the subject of the Italian Patent Application No. 23040B/82 filed in the name of the same applicant.
Such patent application relates to a cake container substantially consisting of a laminar support made of paper material into which by means of through holes a plurality of housings is created each of them accommodating a small pleated-paper cup substantially in the form of an upwardly open truncated cone or pyramid, designed to contain a cake.
Advantageously the containers of this type have proved to be adapted for use as baking-tins to cook cakes therein as well as to be directly wrapped up, at the end of baking, together with the cakes themselves in order to constitute a finished packed product.
By the use of these containers it is also possible to eliminate all other drawbacks mentioned above with reference to metal and plastic baking-tins.
In fact they have very reduced manufacture costs, do not need servicing as they are used only once, and do not give rise to any problems when used in microwave ovens.
However it was found that they are not adapted to be carried by automated transport systems interlocked to ovens and to packing devices of modern conception. In addition said containers only make it useful and convenient to introduce into the oven and to pack a given amount of cakes, predetermined at the moment of the manufacture thereof, since thay cannot be separated into pieces or portions adapted to contain a number of cakes different from the one mentioned above.